In the Winter 2002 edition of Emerging Business, Vickie was interviewed for an article titled "Finders, Keepers: Finding — and Keeping Customers in Today's Competitive World." Emerging Business is partially funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and it spotlights companies that exemplify SBA goals and objectives. In the article Vickie outlines what she does to attract and keep customers. Following the same advice she gives her students, she offers a free newsletter (the Legal Nurse Consulting Ezine you are now reading) and her risk-free guarantee, as well as many others, such as FREE mentoring to her students and CLNC®s.
The same principles apply to your LNC practice. Offer your attorney-clients more than your competitors and add value to any service you provide. If your attorney asks for library research, include your opinion of the research and show how it applies to the case. Send an informational newsletter with bits of medical information that will be valuable to the attorney. And don't forget to offer your own risk-free guarantee on your work product. By implementing a few of these simple strategies, you, too, can keep the attorney-clients you find.
BEST PRACTICES FOR TECHNOLOGY
Email Security – Just How Secure Is It Really?
by Thomas M. Ziemba, BS, JD
Email is a relatively secure method of communicating – subject to certain limitations. Probably the most frequent cause of "lost" or "stolen" email is misdirection. A lot of people don't know their own email address or they misspell the recipient's address. If you send an email that doesn't come back as undeliverable, it went somewhere – hopefully to the person you intended.
You can avoid many email problems by taking a few simple precautions. When you set up new email software, create an email account or configure your browser to check your email. Also, check your address. Send a test email to yourself, then use the reply button to be sure the message comes back to the same address. Also send a test email to a friend. Let her know it's coming and ask her to email back. Don't put any personal information in it (maybe just the word "test").
If you're really concerned about your email winding up in the wrong hands, here are some steps you can take to help ensure your and your clients' privacy:
Avoid Eavesdroppers
Someone can eavesdrop on your email, just like they can on a phone call. But the likelihood is small – they'd have to target you directly and be somewhat technologically proficient in order to do so. Email eavesdropping is usually only a concern for those who have lots to hide (such as big corporations like Microsoft). Unless you are an LNC involved in high stakes litigation – such as tobacco, breast implant or large class-action cases – you probably don't have much to worry about.
To elude eavesdroppers, you can encrypt your email. Encryption means putting your email into an unbreakable code that only someone with the secret decoder ring (known as a "key") can open and read. This can be difficult for people like me with modest technical skills. Programs that will encrypt your email include:
Pretty Good Privacy (available at http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html) – This program can be difficult to set up but is very popular.
ZixMail (available at http://www.zixit.com) – This program is a "plug-in" that works with many email clients and is growing in popularity.
When using email for professional communications, don't send sensitive material without encrypting it (unless your attorney-client tells you not to do so). You can also add a digital signature to sensitive email. This will assure the receiver the email is from you and you alone.
If you don't want to install encryption software, you can send confidential information as an attachment and password protect the attached file when you compress it. WinZip software (available at http://www.winzip.com) does this well.
Make Those Messages Vanish
Something to remember, no matter which side of a case you are working on: Email doesn't go away on its own. Copies of every message you send or receive are not only stored on your computer, but may be found on the recipient's computer, corporate email servers and sometimes even the various servers the email passes through on its way to the recipient. Since email can be forwarded around the world at the push of a button, that's a lot of potential copies that could come back to haunt you. All it takes to find them is a determined attorney with a subpoena. There's always a way to retrieve a message you never want to see again.
To remove the potential for email abuse, you can use a program such as Disappearing Email by Omniva Policy Systems (available at http://www.disappearing.com). This plug-in software for Microsoft Outlook, lets you send encrypted, self-destructing messages to almost any email system or client. Email created with this program will self-destruct after a certain period of time – whether it's been forwarded or saved. Remember though, Disappearing Email won't destroy printed copies.
Another alternative is SafeMessage (available at http://www.absolutefuture.com). This standalone email program encrypts email and locks it down so it can't be forwarded, printed or copied and the message disappears once it has been read. SafeMessage only works if both sender and receiver have the program installed. It is best used only for email requiring the utmost security, not as a replacement for your everyday email program.
Use Email to Your Advantage
If your attorney-client is suing or defending a hospital or corporation that has an email system, be aware that email is subject to the same discovery requests as paper documents. Also, your attorney-client may wish to discover email on the personal computers of the major players and witnesses in the case. You won't be able to get attorney-client privileged information, but you may find all sorts of things those players and witnesses disclosed to others.
These tips and programs won't solve all your email security problems, but they will give you a head-start on some safe practices. Above all, remember to be careful with all your communications – not just your electronic ones.
Thomas M. Ziemba is the general counsel and information systems manager for the Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc.
